The Reason Being
by Firemoon
Summary: Prequel to "Nightmare" Same pairings. Eventual Karl x Raven. shounenshoujo-ai warning. yaoi warning. het. pairing present also. RR!


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**The Reason Being**

**-By. Firemoon**

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***Disclaimer:** I don't own Zoids. For detail see my bio.

***Summary:** Prequel to "Nightmare". The party incident described with more detail.

***Pairing:** Same as "Nightmare". Irvine x Van, Rhyss x Thomas, and Moonbei x Fiona, and eventual Karl x Raven ;)

***Category:** Romance/Humor

***Rating:** PG-13 for implied sex, profanities and various coarse languages, as well as some mature themes.

**Chapter 1: We hate parties!**

Raven sighed, holding a glass half filled with whisky in one hand, the other resting under his chin as he looked around, observing the other partiers of the.. well, party. He was currently sitting alone in the darkest, farthest corner from the crowd, and because of his dark clothing and also equally dark reputation, nobody had really dared to come near him. It was also partly because of the menacingly silent Shadow, the mercenary's black organoid, who was curled up beside her master, having been instructed to look out for the safety of the Genobreaker.

Raven frowned at a very ugly, very, very PINK girl grinning dumbly at him, battering her heavy, bunched up eyelashes. He rested the urge to throw up; Rhyss would _definitely_ not like it. Not that he cared anyway. Rolling his eyes, the mercenary took another gulp of the liquor in his glass. Shadow looked towards her master curiously. What was that liquid inside? It looked like oil. Did the master just drink _oil_? The organoid continued to stare until Raven "gently" reminded her through their mind link that her supposed duty was guarding the red zoid, not himself.

Raven felt quite left out, even if he didn't show it. Rhyss was "seeing" the blond imperial lieutenant Thomas Schubalts, dubbed by Raven "the Airhead", and his long-time rival Van had finally confessed his feelings to Irvine, also dubbed "the Cyclops", and the two were together in a steady relationship since the Second Defeat. The same went to the blond Zoidian – Fi.. _something_ - and the Transporter girl. Raven blinked suddenly, pulling back further into the darkness._ Was that the _Emperor_ that he just saw?_

..The Emperor Rudolph Zeppelin the Third, however renowned for being compassionate and thoughtful, had not quite forgiven Raven for what he did. And seriously, Raven did not like meeting him in here, of all places.

Raven sighed. He shouldn't have come to this stupid party. This was all Rhyss' idea. That stupid Zoidian girl. Grimacing, he poured himself another double whisky.

"Drinking like that won't help you tomorrow morning."

Raven blinked, looking up to see who had dared to speak to him. An eyebrow quirking was the only sign he showed that he was, indeed, surprised. Karl Schubalts stood above him, his own glass of drink in his hands. Raven sighed inwardly, resisting the urge to massage his temples. Violet eyes did not waver, and met the light green eyes challengingly as the two silently glared at each other.

Just as both of them thought that the situation was becoming more and more tense and awkward, out of nowhere Rhyss bounced in, startling both of them enough to break eye contact. She quickly shoved the blond imperial into the seat next to Raven, causing both of them to flinch as they were squashed together, and sat next to the imperial so both of the males couldn¡¯t shift from their position. 

Raven looked up to Shadow, who let out a growl of surprise at being suddenly squashed up along with her master with a blond male she recognized as a stranger pressed up his master's side. But Shadow could not move away to give Raven some room, as she was curled up right against the wall itself, and so the gray haired mercenary was literally stuck with an imperial officer whom he held a mere cold acquaintance and also a certain blue haired Ancient Zoidian who was currently pushing _too_ far.

"Oh Karl, oh Raven, I'm _so_ glad that you two came and talking with strangers for once! We all thought – Van, Irvine, Fiona, Moonbei, Thomas, and me – that you might not come and we were kind of worried that you might not, but you came! I'm so glad! I mean, neither of you like parties that much, do you? Do you? Anyway, so glad that you came! Would you like some cookies? Something? No? Oh well, anything else? Oh, I think Thomas is looking for me. Gotta go. He can't be kept waiting. Have a nice time you two! So glad that you came around! Visit us – Thomas and I – soon! I'll come by and see how you two are doing later! Have fun!"

With that, Rhyss bounced off happily, disappearing among the crowd. They both blinked, still in their seats, squashed up. Raven shook his head; her heady perfume was getting to his head, making him rather dizzy. He dimly felt that the colonel was doing the same, and blinked once more, noting for the first time how close and how.. yeah, _close_ they were sitting. 

Karl, finally recovered from the "Rhyss-attack" and her perfume, quickly stood up and moved away to a seat across from Raven, blushing faintly. However, Raven did not notice the facial colour change of the imperial colonel, having been staring rather blankly into the bottom of his glass before drowning it in a gulp. Karl raised his eyebrows in surprise, and Raven glanced at him, violet eyes hooded.

"Why are you still here?"

Karl shrugged, and he too, downed his cup of beer. Raven noticed for the first time that the imperial army officer was not wearing any kind of uniforms, and his golden locks, free of the hat, tumbled down rather unkemptly around his face. The locks shimmered in the light, unlike his own dull gray ones that just absorbed them. 

Raven was brought out of his musings by a low growl from Shadow, and Raven looked towards his organoid, unconsciously reaching out a gloved hand to pet the organoid affectionately on the neck. The organoid mentally purred.

Meanwhile, Karl too, was observing the person sitting opposite him. Raven was wearing nothing but black that night, with fingerless black leather gloves that hid his scarred palm without hinting at it. Karl, for a moment, wondered how it looked like. No one of the Group – also known as the Gang – had seen it except Rhyss, and she herself refused to describe the scars, mumbling to herself.

He started, breaking his chain of thoughts by a sudden gesture of movement from Raven. The gray haired mercenary looked towards at the hardly visible organoid of his, and Karl was rather surprised to see a small but genuine smile gracing the mercenary's lips for the first time since he had seen the youth almost 10 years ago. The dark amethyst eyes lit up with a strange light as he brushed his bare fingertips across the smooth dark surface of the metal scales of Shadow, a silent caress, mutual affection rising to the surface for the briefest of the moments. Then their eyes met, violet and emerald.

"What?"

Raven snarled, eyes narrowing in annoyance. Karl shrugged again, and reached for the whisky bottle on the table. But before his hand reached it, a pale, gloved hand grabbed his wrist. Raven hissed, eyes now mere violet slits.

_"Mine."_

"..Sure."

Karl mentally sighed. That mercenary sure was hard nut to crack. Trying to ignore the rather explicit other meaning of Raven's word, Karl got up and walked towards the bar for some more drink. Raven, too, sighed, and leant back on the chair, crossing his arms and closing his eyes dejectedly.

...And all this time, six pairs of eyes were watching the two intently.

Rhyss huffed in indignation as she observed the blond imperial colonel walk away, glaring at the gray haired mercenary who was lounging in his chair as if nothing happened. She really DID want to kick that chair out from under him, laugh as he crash onto the floor. Thomas eyed the blue-haired woman worriedly – after all, Rhyss was prone to quick outbursts of anger – and shared a look with the rest of the Gang.

The six had been in working to get "someone special" for both Raven and Karl, since the two were the only loners–dash-singles in the Group. Then they realized that _maybe_ instead of finding someone else for them, _maybe_ they could set the two up together. So here they were, planning the party for MONTHS simply to get the two in the same place for _once_, and Raven just _had_ to screw up the whole plan! Seething a little, Rhyss turned towards the group of people beside her.

"Ok, plan A didn't work. Let's get to plan B. Everyone, you all know what you have to do?"

They all nodded, and the blue haired Zoidian smiled mischievously, her green eyes twinkling.

"Good."

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_.. Don't look at me like that.. *crawls into a little dark hidey-hole* I just wanted to write about how Raven and Karl got together in "Nightmare".. *cries* I'm useless *cries harder*_

_I'll be uploading some more ffs I've had stashed away in my documents for simply AGES, since if I don't I can't be bothered at all with them and I won't even finish it without people pestering me to finish them.. AND I WILL! I WILL FINISH THEM! My love for Zoids have returned anew with the recent event that had happened to me.. [see below]_

_Oh, and for your info, I've got my cosplaying account in my bio so go check up on it.. I COSPLAYED AS RAVEN! MUAHAHAHA! [insane laughter] and there will shortly be a link to my weblog, where you can hear every single little detail that has happened to me in the convention. Major randomness and insanity warning :)_

**_EDIT: some changes in the text and also "Shadow = female" theory added. This was written so long ago that I never noticed this.. FORGIVE ME! X__X_**

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_Yours Fanfictionally Faithful,_

_Firemoon_


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